Exhibitor: CAI Zhisong. Title: Cloud-Tea. Year of Project: 2011. Materials: white-painted stainless steel with hidden waterproof holes, a wind-chime, tea leaves, cotton, balloons, helium, etc.. Size: The Main Cloud: 700×680×350cm (consisting of 8 component clouds). The Suspended Clouds: 2 to 10 clouds from 220×200×120cm to 120×100×80cm (specific quantity will be determined according to the visual effect of the main cloud). Photographer: CAI Zhisong

Pavilion of China

54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

CAI Zhisong, LIANG Yuanwei, PAN Gongkai, YANG Maoyuan, YUAN Gong

Pervasion

04 JUNE – 27 NOVEMBER 2011
Pavilion of the P. R. of China
The 54th International Art Exhibition
La Biennale di Venezia

Press Release

The Ministry of Culture of the P.R. of China is pleased to announce that Mr. PENG Feng is the curator, and China Arts & Entertainment Group (CAEG) as the Commissioner of the Pavilion of the P.R. of China at the 54th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. The selected works by CAI Zhisong, LIANG Yuanwei, PAN Gongkai, YANG Maoyuan, and YUAN Gong will be presented at the Chinese Pavilion in Venice from June 4 through November 27, 2011.

The exhibitors, including freelance artists and professors of art schools, varying in age from 30 to 60 and specialized in ink-water painting, oil painting, sculpture and installation, can show the diversity of contemporary art in China. However, the works can be unified under the theme of “Pervasion of Chinese Flavors”.

As the curator said, “we try to find a way to soften the tensions between diversity and universality, pluralism and monism, the conceptual and the aesthetic, the contemporary and the traditional, which puzzle the men and women in today's art circle. Biography
Commissioner: China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG)

Established in April 2004 on the foundation of the restructured China Performing Art Agency and China International Exhibition Agency, China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG) is the first large state-owned cultural enterprise approved and funded by China State Council.

CAEG is administratively supervised by the Ministry of Culture of the P.R. of China and consists mainly of nineteen wholly owned enterprises including China Performing Arts Agency (CPAA) and China International Exhibition Agency (CIEA). In addition CAEG oversees many corporations through holding or controlling their shares. Both CPAA and CIEA have a history of more than 50 years and are the sole suppliers as well as operators of Chinese performing arts and art exhibitions overseas. Moreover, they are the only agencies in China with global outreaches in the arena of international performances and art exhibitions. In the past decades, CPAA and CIEA have had extensive experiences, both at home and abroad, of undertaking governmental cultural exchange projects and of organizing commercial performances and exhibitions, for which they have won international repute.

In recent years, CAEG has been very active in art exhibitions, and has organized a number of high-quality exhibitions, including “Life at this Time” Contemporary Art Exhibition (Germany), Rodin Art Exhibition, “5000 Years of Chinese Culture”, Chinese Pavilion at the Sao Paulo Biennale (Brazil), Chinese Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Silk Road Travelling Art Exhibition (US). CAEG organized as well many exhibitions and performances during the large-scale Sina-French Years from 2003 to 2005, Sino-Russia Years from 2006-2007 and the Europalia China Festival in 2009.

As the Country's spearhead of cultural enterprises, CAEG will continue to serve as the main official channel of cultural exchanges with foreign countries and to promote, as its strategic goat, Chinese performances and exhibitions overseas. Aiming to be a wide bridge linking Chinese cultural products with the global marketplace, CAEG will integrate its resources, and strive for recognition and acclaim in the international cultural arena. Curator: PENG Feng. Biographical notes
A Ph.D.of Peking University, PENG Feng is professor of aesthetics at Peking University. He has been teaching aesthetics, art theory and criticism at Peking University, Tsinghua University, Central Academy of Fine Art, and Chinese National Academy of Arts since 1997. As the executive committee member of International Association for Aesthetics, he organized the 18th International Congress of Aesthetics in Beijing, 2010. He is especially interested in contemporary art theory and co-organized with James Elkins the China Contemporary Art Forum in Beijing, 2009. He is also an art critic and curator of exhibitions at a national level. Recently, he curated several art exhibitions including International Art Invitational Exhibition at the 18th International Congress of Aesthetics (Beijing: Peking University, 2010), Research on the Representational Painting (Beijing: Times Art Museum, 2010), The Mirrorless — Contemporary Chinese Woman Artists Invitational Exhibition (Beijing: White Box, 2010), The Poetic Orient — SHI Lan's Painting Exhibition (Beijing: National Art Museum of China, 2010), Different Currents of the Same River — PENG Si's Painting Exhibition (Beijing: Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology, 2010). He published many papers on contemporary art in both Chinese and English.

Exhibitor: CAI Zhisong. Biographical notes
A graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Art (MA 1997, MFA 2001), CAI Zhisong is an active sculptor and freelane artist in China. Since 2002, he has done 12 times solo exhibition in China, USA, Singapore, Indonesia, Germany, Taibei, and France and participated 47 times group exhibition all over the world. He obtained the Taylor Prize at the Paris Autumn Salon in 2001.

Exhibitor: LIANG Yuanwei. Biographical notes
A graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Art (BA 1999, MA2004), LIANG Yuanwei is an active painter and freelance artist in China. Since 2000, she has done 3 times solo exhibition in Beijing and participated 32 times group exhibition in China, Italy, USA, UK, Spain, and South Korea.

Exhibitor: PAN Gongkai. Biography notes
PAN Gongkai is professor and president of the Central Academy of Fine Art and vice Chairman of China Artist Association. He is a well-known ink painter, conceptual artist, and architect. He received an honorary doctorate from San Francisco Art Institute in 1993 and Glasgow School of Art in 2009. His solo exhibitions and group exhibitions have been hold in New York City, San Francisco, Paris, Berlin, Dresden, Czechic, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, Macau, especially in major Museums and Galleries such as Berlin National Museum, Dresden National Museum, UNESCO Paris, Tokyo Art University Museum, Taipei Sun Yatsen Memorial Hall, HK Art Center, Macau Museum and so on.

Exhibitor: YANG Maoyuan. Biography notes
A graduate of the Central Academy of Fine Art, YANG Maoyuan is a freelance artist and well-known in conceptual installation. Since 1989, he has done 11 times solo exhibition in China, Italy and German and participated 45 times group exhibition all over the world. He won the Chinese Contemporary Art Award in 2002.

Exhibitor: YUAN Gong. Biography notes
A Ph.D. candidate of the Chinese National Academy of Arts, YUAN Gong is well-known conceptual artist. Since 1997, he has done a solo exhibition in Hong Kong and participated 25 times group exhibition all over the world.

Abstract

Title: Pervasion
Commissioner: China Arts & Entertainment Group (CAEG)
Curator: PENG Feng
General Collaborator: ZHANG Yu
Collaborator: YAN Dong
Assistant Collaborators: LIU Zhenlin, WANG Ying, SUN Yi, YANG Xin, XIE Yanyi
Supporter: Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic of China
Exhibitors: CAI Zhisong, LIANG Yuanwei, PAN Gongkai, YANG Maoyuan, YUAN Gong
E-mail: biennale54china@gmail.com

The Pavilion of China will exhibit five works based on the five flavors or smells including tea, spirit, lotus flower, herb medicine, and incense which are created by CAI Zhisong, LIANG Yuanwei, PAN Gongkai, YANG Maoyuan, and YUAN gong respectively. The works are both independent and related. The flavors or smells as a whole can make a fantastic sensuous world. All five senses can be excited and affected and so produce a special feeling, emotion and mood for the visitors.

Press Contact:

Commissioner: China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG)
Address: 15F, No.3A Dongzhimen South Avenue, Dongcheng District, Beijing, P.R.China
Zip code: 100007
Tel: +86-10-64003693
Fax: +86-10-64042290
E-mail: biennale54china@gmail.com